Fallen Angel of Doom....

Blasphemy's mix of death metal and first-wave black metal creates a chaotic sound, and that sound is war metal. Unlike regular black metal, war metal is more chaotic and has more of a grindcore influence. The sound and look are what makes Blasphemy unique from other black metal bands, and because of this paved the way for other bands, and the band image looks tougher than the other black metal bands. Blasphemy also influenced bands such as Conqueror, Revenge, Black Witchery Etc. Blasphemy is like if you mix Sarcofago, Sodom, Bathory, and death grind, and add cocaine into the mix for intensity. These powerlifting maniacs deliver with an album that will desecrate your eardrums and keep you hooked for more. The band's members are also rough and tough, unlike those bands that don't put in effort to look the part. This album also exudes evil and pure testosterone, and it is also great to power lift.

The album starts with the intro which makes you feel like you are in the depths of hell itself and then The self-titled Fallen Angel of Doom starts with Nocturnal Grave Desecrator's growling vocals and 3 Hearts of Black Damnation and Impurity's drums banging in your eardrums and Caller of the Storms' riffs are fast and pummeling. The drums bang on your eardrums The songs on here are memorable, and the riffs are pummeling. This album will make you come back for more each time you listen. Demoniac starts with Caller of the Storms's palm-muted riffs and then goes into 3 Hearts of Black Damnation's thundering drums. After that Nocturnal Grave Desecrator gives his vocal Performance and lyrically the song is amazing. "Son of hell attack with burning plague Pray upon the torn flesh of the innocent Kill Christ blood on the cross sacrifice Armageddon of commence holy die Breeding of hate perform the darkest rites Calling forth the black heart of damnation The vengeance of war won by hell incarnate Victory of evil rise demoniac"... and the chorus is also quite catchy, "Antichrist born hate from Hades Antichrist born fire from hell"...

If only this could be ranked higher, 100% is still not enough for this masterpiece. The album production is raw and dirty, just like how true war metal is supposed to be. This album is the epitome of true underground metal done correctly, unlike the mainstream black metal bands that have a clean production. Grave Desecrator's vocals are evil, the solos are sloppy but in a good way and the drumming is great too. I highly recommend this album, It is an essential album to buy for your collection.

Buy this and listen to it now or be in Poser!

10/10

War metal/Bestial black metal is one of the most aggressive metal subgenres of all time. Yes, you got slam death metal and every grindcore album ever, but they are all about sounding heavy and fast. In terms of brutality and chaos, war metal has the evil sound that even the heaviest slam brutal death metal album can't accomplish. This is where we get to the Canadian band Blasphemy, one of the pioneers of the genre as well as black metal in general. Their demo "Blood Upon the Alter" was an unexpected hit, and they decided to follow up on it a year later with their debut album "Fallen Angel of Doom....". Its sound is completely brutal, but deep in the chaos, you will find some beauty in it.

One of the biggest things about the album is the instruments. First wave black metal bands had an intense sound, but they are weak when compared to FAOD. The guitar riffs are very grindy and play dark and fast riffs. The drums, while occasionally beating in more cohesive patterns, still best extremely fast and aggressive most of the time. Even the bass, while mostly inaudible, still follows along the guitars well. The production doesn't make things better, as it combines the instruments to make one giant mess. While the sound can be a bit much, it ends up working in the end. One great example of this would be in the track "Fallen Angel of Doom". There, the guitar riffs are more recognizable, and they play some of the best riffs in Blasphemy's discography. Even some of the ambient tracks are great, like in the "Winds of the Black Godz" intro, where its haunting synths and deep echoes bring in an excellent atmosphere of hopelessness. The instrumentals on this album are amazing, and they would be influential to the war metal genre.

Another great part about the album is the vocals. Gerry Buhl did the vocals on this album, and they are amazing. His voice mainly comprises of deep growls and gurgles, and they are very fitting to the mad atmosphere brought by the instruments. An excellent example of this would be in the track "Ritual". His vocals include more short bursts and flow along the fast riffs well. He also sounds great on the tracks "Demoniac" and "Darkness Prevails", where his voice include some "quieter" moments, which make his vocals sound more creepy. Buhl's vocals on this album are amazing, and would further execute the album's furious instruments.

The lyrics are also great. Bands like Bathory and Venom were including dark lyrical themes, but Blasphemy took things a step further. Take the lyrics to "Desecration" for example, where this verse quotes:

Blasphemous sinner warhead jet black
Attacking at will blasphemous attack
Unholy destruction dying off fear
Antichrist ordered overkill is near

This verse talks about blasphemous and sinful people attacking religious people. The way verses like this one are worded make the story sound more epic and graphic, and its heavy use of satanic themes make their actions sound more fierce. Not only that, but they are enhanced further by the cruel and savage atmosphere of the instruments and the growling vocals of Buhl. The lyrics are wonderful in its storytelling, and they are given a more sinister tone with the instruments and vocals.

With all of these reasons, it's easy to see why FAOD is one of the most influential albums in the war metal genre. The instrumentals are filled with pure hatred, the vocals growl with a genuine feeling of anger, and the lyrics are able to express the chaos in a grand way. While there are a couple of weaker moments on the album, it is overall breathtaking, and it is recommend to those who are going to get into the war metal genre.

I can't find the exact words to express how I feel about this album and Blasphemy as a whole. The Canadian scene is home to many bestial black death/war metal bands such as Conqueror, Revenge, Necroholocaust, Antichrist, and the list goes on. The scene provides classics such as War.Cult.Supremacy, Triumph.Genocide.Antichrist, and many others that have made an impact and influenced countless of bands around the world in many ways but I feel like Fallen Angel of Doom paved the way to a whole different style where even to this day it doesn't matter how many bands are playing war metal and whom they're trying to sound like, it all falls back to this classic.

Of course this album isn't completely perfect at all but the flaws are minor. The production is dull and muddy but in my opinion this is what underground metal is supposed to sound like; I just wish the guitar riffs weren't drowned out by the drums. The riffs aren't complex but rather repetitive and simple; Almost every single track is played with the same riffs pattern. I think the most outstanding song of them all is "Goddess of Perversity" but only because of its intro riff. Don't get me wrong though, every single track in this album is as intense and extreme as it can get. The drums are like a death machine mercilessly pummeling the listener's soul out of their body. I guess that's the feeling they got when they first listened to this specially after spending a minute and twenty seconds listening to the intro. The atmosphere of this album can be very spooky to first-time listeners specially when getting into black metal specially when the vocals sounds like a corpse coming back from the grave vomiting speeches of war and the end of all mankind.

Not for the faint of heart and I highly recommend this to anyone trying to get into the underground and wants to go down the right path. The reason I gave it a 100% despite its flaws is because this album has become somewhat meaningful to me as well as some of the people I hang out with and despite having listened to it more than a thousand times the adrenaline still rushes through my veins just like the first time I gave it a listen.

Blasphemy are an early 1990’s black metal/death metal outfit from British Columbia who debuted this album, “Fallen Angel of Doom…” in 1990. Although still performing, Blasphemy hasn’t published any new material since 1993. Blasphemy is one of those bands that I feel I should know who they are and what they’re known for by now but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Blasphemy’s logo seems like something that a true metalhead would have as a patch on his or her denim jacket to display their elite appreciation for death metal. I have never heard this band before but Nuclear War Now! Productions has decided to brush the cobwebs off of this old-school death metal relic.

If you expected “Fallen Angel of Doom…” so sound raw, vicious and inspired in the way that only an early 90’s black/death metal band from Canada could sound you would be absolutely right in thinking so. Sometimes, the atmosphere of this record is downright spooky and unsettling. I would compare certain periods of the listening experience to being in a really well-done Halloween haunted house. You know how fake everything is but you still get this deep, natural impression that things are so off-kilter that the presence of a supernatural, evil force may be what’s causing the fear and dread you feel inside. I got this same sensation from “Fallen Angel of Doom…” That’s extremely impressive for an album that is in its 25th year of release.

But still, there are some things are not quite yet as well-trained or focused as they should be. Particularly with the vocal rhythms and the lead guitars. And although I am sure Nuclear War Now! has gone through great efforts to try and remaster the quality of “Fallen Angel of Doom…”, I think a lot of the drum’s sound has gotten muddied or otherwise totally lost. Chalk that one up to probably being recorded on tape and the effects of age on its quality. I really feel like what is left is a very repetitive and empty drum tone throughout the whole album and the shame is that even with the technology we have at our disposal today, we could not seem to repair.

So do I think Blasphemy made a memorable album that has stood the test of time? Yes I do. “Fallen Angel of Doom…” is way more extreme than what most other bands from North America were doing at the time. Blasphemy really combine the brutal assault of death metal and grindcore bands of that same era but retain a sinister presence on all of their songs like their European Black Metal counterparts. I feel much more elite having listened to Blasphemy and I recommend you revisit “Fallen Angel of Doom…” or if you’ve never heard it, even better. All your friends will admire your obscure and authentic taste in death metal for having done so.

Originally published on Metal-Temple.com, 4-13-2015.

Blasphemy along with other black metal bands such as Beherit were essential to the shaping of this sub-genre of black metal known as war metal in the late 80s/ early 90s. Each band had their own approach to the sound, but all had the same characteristics; brutal but simplistic riffing, relentless blast beats and haunting black metal howls.

The album begins with a short intro; it's actually quite calming unlike the rest of the album. It goes on for just over a minute and then it all beings. When the title track kicks in, it practically resembles an explosion, with some of the scariest sounding vocals in metal and ugliest riffs. It's kind of like if old school death metal meets Bathory. The solo kicks in for about 20 seconds, and resembles your classic Jeff Hanneman chaos solo, and executed very well.

Unfortunately every album has its weakness, and for Fallen Angel Of Doom it's the indecipherable guitars drowned out by the drums and vocals. Though it creates a chaotic atmosphere for the album, it does eventually become a bit of a nuisance. The Irony of this, is that the Blood Upon The Altar version of Ritual is actually better produced than its full length counterpart. I'm actually able to tell what they are playing all the way though the song; not just that famous intro riff! However this album still has its memorable riffs, like on The Goddess Of Perversity, probably the clearest sounding song on this album, and a personal favorite.

This album has been out for 23 years, and has aged amazingly. Still makes a lot of modern metal bands look tame. Haunting bestial vocals that were unheard of for the year 1990, great riffs and fantastic chaos solos throughout! I recommend this album to anyone who is a fan of black metal.

I’ve intended to make this review since a very long time ago. This is what happens when you are young, impressionable and completely obsessed with Sarcofago / Bathory / Possessed, been writing songs for years and have a low budget to work with at the studio, and even a lower budget to pay the sound guy in the studio (or having a complete idiot mix your album).

What we have here is a 30:13 long blur with vomit sounding vocals, wild 3/4 note riffs played in tremolo, the occasional random-sounding messy solo, a rumbling distorted bass and frenetic drumming. The whole thing is un-tight, unpolished and sounds like being played by neanderthals instead of homo-sapiens, you can’t get any more savage than this, you just can’t.

I have a hypothesis by which I state that black metal nowadays would sound like this if the idiots in Norway during the early 90’s wouldn’t have popularized the genera with their “anti-death metal” trend and stripping all to the bare minimum of musical expression and ridding the music of the low end frequencies, and in some cases even drums too! Haven’t you noticed sometimes you only hear the high hat and the kick drums in BM records? Pay attention.

We have 10 tracks here. The intro, clocking at 1:20 mins, more or less, it’s noise with feedback and sound effects after which the title track shoots you in the head with a shotgun with no prior warning. Then you realize what hit you, and you’ll want to run into an imaginary mosh pit to stab people in a crazed frenzy as you worship the satanic skinheads on stage.

The songs are all similar with some highlights, among them the title track, desecration, ritual, weltering in blood, demoniac and goddess of perversity. All these crafted with a hatred so strong is almost unimaginable, almost inhuman. Blurry guitars played on the fat strings, with dissonant solos scattered here and there, extremely untight, fast and angry drumming, not to the point of being ridiculous, a noise wall creating bass and the vocals........ AAARRRGGGHHH…!!!

Mid toned growling on the lower decibel scale. Black Winds sounds like he is actually vomiting, or being used as medium to communicate the devils wishes to his coven of warlocks and witches, the foul mouth and voice of satan himself. Grunting and growling all kinds of heresies and blasphemies, curses and unholy blessings to all who care to listen in a seemingly ghastly or extraterrestrial, perhaps a spiritual dialect. A true manifestation of demonic possession must’ve occurred when the Nocturnal Grave Desecrator and Black Winds recorded his vocal tracks for this album at Fiasco Bros. studios.

Indeed unholy war anthems of chaos, death, destruction, desolation, rape and desecration of all deemed holy and the annihilation of mankind. A tribe of beast men pounding on human skins, boiling people alive and simultaneously stabbing, beating, eating and raping all alien to their kin in a primitive, savage, sadistic ritual to the black gods of the full moon. These are some of the images that pop in my head when I listen to this gospel of Blasphemy.

MANDATORY RECORD TO ALL WHO CALL THEMSELVES BLACK METALHEADS OR SATANIC SKINHEADS!!! THE GREATEST EXTREME METAL RECORD OF ALL TIME!! GET IT OR DIE LIKE A POSER!!!

Blasphemy is one of those bands that I've tried to persist with, and for all purposes they remain and probably always will remain a band that is impenetrable for reasons far beyond 'grating' production values. There's no point going into the production in any great depth, it's messy early stuff not far off Von / Archgoat / Beherit and acts in this vein. The cymbals provide a din of clashes, the guitars are low-fi roar (but clear enough to make out the riffs in most cases) and the vocals are a gurgling onslaught, and possibly the most distinguishable part of the sound. Although, this does vary a little from song to song... could be just my version though.

As with the production, the band's aesthetic and riffcraft is very similar to the grinding pulse provided by Archgoat and Beherit. In otherwords it is a sonic onslaught that combines the primitive, blasting assualt of INRI era Sarcofago with very early Bathory. Maybe throw some early Sodom into the mix too, if you want be exact. It's definitely faster than these bands, though, but the techniques employed are very similar. Therefore, as you would expect, there is a lot of blasting drums, hyper-speed riffing (often boardering on grindcore without the 'angularity' of that riffing style, ala Carcass). Occasionally the band slows down, but it's never to a crawl... generally with a mid-tempo section where the drums become 'less intense' as well. You could probably approximate this to something along the lines of a 'thrash break' in some cases. I find that although there is some single-note tremolo used, the general preference is towards rapid-fire power chords. These are almost always on the low-end of the scale, note-wise too. The vocal-style is mostly a low-end gurgle. It's about the same pitch as a low-rumbling train going past somewhere in the distance. In a word, it's very violent, intense, uncompromising, yet primative music.

The songs are often longer in length and contain more riffs than their counterpart albums from Archgoat and Beherit. But with that said the end result is not too much dissimilar. For all the power, and razor-edge nature of the sound, the end product is like someone put 100 riffs into a tumbler dryer, left it for an half an hour, and eventually returned it back into this aural nightmare through the assistance of a old-style hair dryer (the really noisy, annoying type). No matter how hard I've tried I can never see any "point" or "driving force" between these songs. Everything on this disc seems random, and merely a consequence of just keeping to a fairly mediocre / disinteresting aesthetic platform. It's the kind of album that you can listen to half a dozen times, and nod your head to individual moments, but in the long run it gets old fast. I think the main problem, and this is caused by the 'riff-salad' approach is that there is a real lack or melody, harmony or other ungoing thematic musical ideas that make these 'compositions' rather than an assortment of high-speed riffs.

Ultimately it begs the question is aesthetic merely enough to make an album powerful? This band answers the question with a resounding NO.

Power. Power-house, power-dive, power-play, power-rating, power-point, power-lunch, power-steering, Austin Powers, power-punch, power-pact, power-tool, power-lifting. Whether all of those listed have anything in common with another, one thing is certain: that they all elicit a hungry attitude. A desire for more. A desire to possibly be at the top, above all of the rest. Narrowing down the list, Blasphemy would probably deserve a few. Like a power-pact brought them together to create Fallen Angel of Doom. A band filled with power-houses and power-lifters, who possibly pack a power-punch, build their own things with power-tools and finish off work with a late power-lunch. This is a band who would pump out two full lengths in their early band days. And be remembered in whispered, legend-like status. A powerful feat indeed.

The production is terrible by evolved standards of on-a-label extreme metal. Typically with the guitars and bass lowest, and the drums and vocals loudest. This is especially evident during the faster sections, except with solos turned up. You get a meshed array of bassy notes, harassing your speakers with massive disassembled force.

Blasphemy is quite possibly 'The Menace' when it comes to threatening music. The band is so intimidating that they could drop their instruments and pose like a tattoo laden Mr. Universe contest. And I can imagine no sane person would utter a defiant word. 'Hey, what the hell?' 'Shut up man, shut up!' The music is as grindy as Carcass at that time and before, while spouting evil obscenities and influences from the likes of Sarcofago's INRI, first couple of Bathory and of course mid-80's Sodom. Displaying a vulgar, savage and uncivilized mentality that is manned by four vandals that know how to hammer and axe their instruments into obscured realms.

This was at the beginning stages of mixing a type of blasphemous war ideology. Words like "desecrate, destruction, terminate, rape, death, attack" would appear in the lyrical booklet, but would be applied to an antithesis of holiness. Instead of just pillaging everybody, their aim was specific in its regards to this. They sound like a mix of death and black metal, but the ideology of the band is by far in the black metal camp. If you heard the term "War Metal" applied here, which I think is just a pompous or self-important way for some bands to describe their music; I guess trying to separate themselves from the multiple facets of bm that have evolved. But in actuality this is about as far from talking about strategic plans, politics, heroism, honor, officers or anything else you can generally apply to conventional war. The view here is about as evil as its going to get. The parameters of a war mind-frame are clearly set by Blasphemy in profane regards.

The music definitely has its fast moments, but then there are some slower and mid-sections as well. They reach a sloppy, chaotic blast, pressing his drumming to the limits his muscles and tendons can take. The drummer is likely fried when playing this. I can imagine him gluing a board to his forehead and doing the ceaseless blasts with his head bobbing up and down on the snare, while watching Van Damme movies on a monitor and karate chopping cymbals. It's close to being that unruly sounding. He has a bassy, bullying snare drum, that keeps your head afloat with nods. It dips below the water when he blasts, but he uses cymbals to find and locate the sometimes faint guitars. Caller of the Storms and Traditional Sodomizer use brute and barbaric guitar—techniques?—to place a background frenzy that heckles the music into uncharted realms. Their playing changes between a thick toned sound, playing back and forth with emphasis on two-ton riffing. They also use a cool method of strumming single notes, while the rest of the music uses a faster beat. I've seen live tapes of Caller's heinous soloing. He'll actually hold a note, then 'detune' that string on the head stock, so it gives a musically unharmonious noise. Black Winds's vocals are a prehistoric anomaly, grabbing hold with a locked-jaw while tearing and growling with beastly intimidation. He uses a few different variations, sometimes throaty and at other points deeper and more one-tone. There are numerous effects on top of them, along with delay used to stretch his quick bellows to initiate an upcoming section. I'm guessing knocking the Canadian band Slaughter aside for taking Tom Warrior grunts to the limit.

With Wild Rags Records originally releasing Fallen Angel of Doom. And then eventually getting caught up to its neck in releases and going out of business. This release was lost to players, but apparently not to mouths. Fortunately it has been re-released again recently with pictures and lyrics. This band had some cult aspects, even though they only released a few outputs. I can imagine these self-called "Black Metal Skinheads" at one of their shows getting so rowdy, that they have a booth set up giving shaved heads to esteemed listeners, just cue-ballin' everybody. In Blasphemy's extracurricular activities they could have started their own Canadian rugby team, or an extreme wrestling federation. Oddly having excessively long band names that can only be remembered by the most long-time of listeners or die-hard of fans. Blasphemy encompasses a bunch of belligerent aspects, that are more than likely real on and off stage personas, which can give listening to this release its lasting primordial allurement; flaws and all. And for the new-comer listening to a release like Fallen Angel of Doom, it is like being the innocent sheep forcefully pushed forward with shaky legs and fed to a pack of salivating, hungry wolves.

I heard about these guys when I first got into Beherit and bought their copy of 'The Oath Of Black Blood'. People told me it was very much influenced by this Canadian "war" black metal band called Blasphemy. I loved 'Oath Of Black Blood' from Beherit and I was curious to hear the influence in 'Fallen Angel Of Doom'.

I was blown away by the rawness, lack of real musicianship, speed and ferocity of the band. I also realized that Beherit totally ripped these guys off with their sound and style. If you played me both albums I would never have guessed that they were different bands playing. I would give the edge however to this album, but slightly. This one is a classic in every way possible. Now we know that black metal music is not based on how "technical" it sounds or how cohesive it is musically speaking. It's mostly about emotion, anger, feel and atmosphere.

When I heard the whole thing through I was very impressed and blown away. The vocals are vicious and the guitars are sloppy but noisy and grinding. The drums are basic and sinister. True, raw black metal with some war based themes thrown in for good measure. You could call it; war, grind, raw black metal. A total masterpiece from the beginning intro (Winds Of the Black Gods, quite possibly the best intro ever) to the last song (The Desolate One/Outro). All over in just 30 minutes.

But the message and experience lasts a lifetime. Such an influential and vital release that Beherit copied their style in the beginning and Black Withchery make a career out of trying to resusitate their image and sound. Blasphemy only recorded 2 full lengths and a demo. But the quality is so ahead of its time and original that it still sounds fresh and important today. A classic and memorable release that defines raw black metal. Fucking essential.

I’ve always heard good things about this group. It’s considered, rightly, one of the very first “war death metal” groups back to the end of the 80s and I must admit that the atmosphere we can find here is truly battling and devastating. This is pure chaos madness. The production is poor for the sounds but pounding for the volumes and everything sounds so messy and obscure.

An almost epic/doom intro welcomes us in war while the following title track is introduced by fast blast beats and following up tempo. The vocals are very guttural and extreme, taking inspiration from the grind movement, as the music too. The guitars are down tuned and like chainsaw while the drum sound is a bit hidden behind all that incredible chaos.

Anyway, the band doesn’t always play fast but it’s also true morbid during the doom passages and the mid tempos. There is no melody obviously and the solos are mainly lead by a primitive form f anger and will to destroy. It’s very hard to distinguish the songs here because the song writing is the last thing they care about. They just want to play faster than a plane and heavier than a house.

Needless to say how these sonorities were innovating in that period and now they can be seem a bit childish, also for the poor production but it was a newborn style and it had to be evolved. “Darkness Prevails” is great for the horror intro and the inhuman blast beats parts. Check out also the messy drums intro to “Ritual” with some strange up tempo. This is very raw!

All in all, there’s nothing else to say because you must take this album without distinguishing the songs, but enjoying it in its entire form, brutality and rawness. It’s very influential and bestial for the period but I must give it a lower rate than the other reviewers just because I don’t adore these too raw sounds and to me, the classic “war death metal” albums are other ones. Anyway a small piece of brutal history.